In a press release this morning, the commission estimated
that hunters took 133,860 antlered deer in the 2012-13 seasons, an increase of
about 5 percent from the previous license year's harvest of 127,540; and 209,250
antlerless deer, which is a slight increase over the 208,660 antlerless deer
taken in 2011-12.

"This year's antlered deer harvest is slightly above the
average harvest since 2005, when agency efforts began to stabilize deer
populations in most of the state," Carl G. Roe, commission executive director,
was quoted in the release. "The age structure of the antlered deer harvest was
49 percent 1.5 year-old-bucks and 51 percent 2.5-year-old and older bucks.

"The antlerless hunter success rate remained at about 25
percent for licenses issued. This is on average with harvest success for recent
years. The age structure of this year's antlerless deer harvest was 61 percent
adult females, 22 percent button bucks and 18 percent doe fawns. The rates are
similar to long-term averages."

Bureau of Wildlife Management biologists now are working with
the 2012-13 estimates to develop 2013-14 antlerless deer license allocation
recommendations for the April meeting of the Board of Game Commissioners.

In addition, Calvin DuBrock, director of the bureau, said deer
health measures, forest regeneration and deer-human conflicts for each WMU are
also being considered in planning for the coming deer hunting seasons.

Total deer harvest estimates by wildlife management unit for
2012-13 (with 2011-12 figures in parentheses) are as follows.